1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and processes that are deployed to store and deliver customer and project information to relatively large user populations. More particularly, the present invention relates to database management systems which are used to store and deliver customer and project related information to users of the same via network connections.
2. Description of the Related Art
In large organizations such as those that are service oriented, the storage and retrieval of information related to ongoing projects and customers often present significant problems for system managers, customers, and service support staff. In particular, service based organizations such as telephony and communications organizations have no effective way to store and disseminate information that may be used by engineering staff, support personnel, and, most importantly, customers to obtain needed information about ongoing projects, status data, performance metrics, etc. For example, when service problems occur (e.g., network outages), it is not uncommon for customers to scurry to obtain current and valid contact numbers and addresses of key personnel who can correct or otherwise handle and address such problems. As a result, frustrations on the part of customers can run high, services often are interrupted, and problems are not effectively and efficiently addressed and resolved.
To address the problems associated with storing and delivering current information such as customer related information (e.g., support staff contact numbers and electronic mail addresses, etc.), many solutions have been proposed. For example, many organizations have implemented what have been referred to as xe2x80x9cintranetsxe2x80x9d to allow organizational personnel to access central data repositories to retrieve contact information and the like. Unfortunately, such intranets often only allow small groups of select users (e.g., internal personnel) to access such information. Historically, intranets have not been deployed to allow larger user populations such as those including internal support and engineering personnel and external personnel such as customers to access central repositories of project and customer information.
To address the limitations of conventional intranets, xe2x80x9cextranetsxe2x80x9d have been proposed to address the constant need to provide access to project and/or customer information. Such systems allow larger user populations to access databases of relevant information. Unfortunately, however, extranet systems have not been deployed in any common, uniform, or convenient way to facilitate easy and efficient use by larger user populations. In particular, each customer or project often calls for a separate and distinct network system, thus requiring an extranet to be established on al la carte, custom basis. Accordingly, the instantiation of a special extranet system to support each particular customer can become a project that may be more resource intensive to establish and operate than the underlying services to which it is to relate.
Moreover, in prior networked information delivery systems such as those embodying extranets and, in particular, in those utilized in organizations that provide telecommunications services, network management centers compiled trouble and customer support ticket data which was sent to various account teams. Upon receipt of such ticket data, the account teams would produce various reports for perusal by internal staff and customers. Accordingly, the information gathered via ticket responses, etc. was prepared internally and then delivered to customers for their processing. In prior systems, there was no way for customers, for example, to access an information repository managed by a service organization and retrieve live, up-to-date reports and analyses of system and network performance, statistics, contact information, process instructions, etc.
Accordingly, there exists no truly effective solution to the ever-present problem of providing project and customer information to diverse user populations. And, as organizations take on more customers and/or offer more services (e.g., telecommunications services, etc.), they are faced with allocating resources merely to control and service the demands for information that ought to be readily and immediately available. Because there are no shared repositories of information between user groups within a particular organization, that information must be disseminated and, often, replicated within a corresponding system. Such redundancy is often the cause of many inconsistencies among stored information.
Thus, there exists a need to provide a system and corresponding process for storing and providing customer and project related information to diverse user populations. To be viable such a system must be able to store customer and projected related information in a central repository that is accessible from inside and outside of an organization. Such a system must store and deliver information related to customers and projects including, but not limited to, personnel contact information, engineering information project status information, project planning procedures, etc. which is retrievable using conventional network data and content retrieval tools such as web browsers, etc.
The present invention solves the problems mentioned above by providing a centralized data store containing information related to customers and projects that is easily accessible by diverse user populations including internal organizational personnel and external personnel such as customers. As such, the present invention provides many benefits associated with data storage and distribution not heretofore realized by prior database management systems and facilities. For example, during times of network or service related problems (e.g., service failures, outages, etc.), customers can now easily access a centralized data store to retrieve engineering and contact personnel information, learn about corrective procedures and processes, and, possibly, page and otherwise automatically initiate contact to personnel that are equipped and trained to respond to a particular service customer""s needs. Additionally, because the present invention utilizes standard tools and facilities (e.g., web servers coupled to web browsers, etc.) to distribute information and customer content (e.g., project related information such as statistics, etc.), users are able to access such information without having to know or understand special system protocols, etc.
The present invention solves the aforementioned problems to deliver the benefits mentioned above by providing a system and corresponding method for storing and delivering customer information. The system and method include and involve a data storage system for storing customer information including contact information, network addressing information, engineering, and customer service information related to at least one network service customer to whom network services are provided by a network service provider. The system and method also include and involve a network access system that is coupled to the data storage system via at least one data communications link and which is configured to provide access to at least one user to permit such user(s) to retrieve the customer information from the data storage system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, provided is a method of using a data communications network that includes the steps of accessing a data communications network via a network connection, receiving a login authorization prompt to be validated within the data communications network, entering a login sequence via the network connection to be validated by a validation system within the data communications network, accessing a document delivery system within the data communications network after being validated by the validation system, and receiving customer information from the document delivery system based on the login sequence. The customer information includes contact information, network addressing information, engineering and customer service information related to at least one network service customer to whom network services are provided by a network service provider.